Thursday 29 July 2021
Fabulous drama for Ovtcharov
The best defeat ever
By Tobias Nordmann
It is certainly one of the most impressive scenes of these Olympic Games. Table tennis star Dimitrij Ovtcharov sits lonely in the stands after the dramatically missed entry into the final. Physically and emotionally drained after what might be the best game of his career.
The thing is: if you have to fend off three match points, then it is not enough if you only fend off two match points. But that is exactly what Dimitrij Ovtcharov had done. He had taken Ma Long two chances to get into the Olympic table tennis final. Ma Long, you have to know, is called the “human extraterrestrial” in his homeland. And why people in China call him that, he demonstrated when Ovtcharov tried to give this sensational match the final twist. Long parried all attacks of the German in an eight-second-long exchange of blows (that is actually long), attacked himself with the forehand and was rewarded. After 81 minutes he had won.
“There has rarely been a better game, from the first to the last rally. That was madness,” enthuses national coach Jörg Roßkopf. An ennoblement, he himself had provided plenty of insane games in the 80s and 90s. Alongside Ovtcharov’s success 16 years later, his bronze medal from 1996 is the only German individual medal to this day. Sports director Richard Prause was also impressed by this level. “It was one of the best games I’ve ever seen, the quality, the drama, the way table tennis was played. It was next level table tennis.”
Ovtcharov sank to the floor exhausted after the final mistake. His last blow, a longline forehand played on the backhand of the Chinese, had crashed into the net. Instead of equalizing in the decisive seventh set, the dream of the finale, the dream of gold, burst. The result from the German’s point of view shows how close the match was – 3: 4 after sets that end 11:13, 8:11, 11: 9, 9:11, 11: 7, 11: 5 and 9:11 . Now bronze beckons as consolation. The opponent in the fight for his fifth Olympic medal is now the 19-year-old Lin Yun-Ju from Taiwan, who also lost 3: 4 to world number one Fan Zhendong.
“… in the end only God knows that”
What Ovtcharov and Ma Long conjured up on the record in front of the orphaned ranks of the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium was phenomenal. It was technically outstanding, physically at the limit and mentally a thriller at the highest level. It may have been the most spectacular event of the Olympic Games to date. Ovtcharov was there right from the start, offering perhaps the best player of all time a fight without slacking off for a second. Long won the first two sets. The rallies were often short but aggressive.
As in the quarter-finals against the Brazilian Hugo Calderano, the German had to make an emotional show of strength early on. It succeeded. Ovtcharov won rounds three and four. The fifth then went back to the Chinese. The sixth was dominated by the 32-year-old, who was born in Kiev, in an astonishing way. Long staggered. In the 19th duel with the German, the reigning world and Olympic champion threatened the first bankruptcy. What a ludicrous record. What an expression of the dominance of this icon on the plate. “I have been studying Ma Long intensively over the past few months. I firmly believed in my victory today and dreamed of gold,” said Ovtcharov. It was a long dream. A very long dream.
Then comes sentence seven. Long puts forward, leads 5: 3. Ovtcharov counters. And how. In the most spectacular rally of the tournament, in one of the most spectacular rallies in Olympic history. The two superstars beat the plastic ball around the ears for 16 seconds, sometimes standing meters away from the record. A crashing forehand is countered by the next crashing forehand (rarely also by the backhand). Only the 28th stroke, an open forehand of the Chinese flies next to the table. The momentum clearly on the part of the German, but the score 5: 4 for Ma Long.
An effective hit for the world number three? No, Ma Long moves to 8: 4, 9: 6 and 10: 7 of it. He finally uses the third match ball. The fabulous ending to a fabulous game. And Ovtachrov? He retires to the stands alone, picks up his cell phone, calls home, with his father, with his wife. Consolation and praise for a monster game. “It was one of the best games I have ever played. I had the best player ever, on the verge of defeat in the biggest tournament,” said Ovtcharov: “I know why it is sometimes this way and sometimes this way in sport in the end just God. ” Well the thing is …
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